During the 2020 Whole Family Approach Institute, participants received specialized support related to service integration, received peer-learning opportunities as well as access to expert presentations, and learned about building blocks critical to Whole Family Approach success. They also learned practical insights to improve the design of a Theory of Change, Logic Model and plan for data collection and use. Resources, presentations, session handouts, and a series of videos are available.

The family-centered coaching approach allows staff to partner with families holistically, taking into account their strengths and goals, challenges, and systemic barriers. This toolkit offers strategies, tools, and resources that can help programs, agencies, case managers, coaches, and others change how they work with families striving to reach their goals by planning for and intentionally changing the way coaching is delivered to families. A key goal of the toolkit is to encourage caseworkers to work with families toward a coaching philosophy that places the participant in the lead, with staff playing a critical supporting role. The toolkit offers a framework that incorporates multiple approaches, with goal setting as a key technique of supporting families in making the changes they need.

The Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP), the Alliance National Parent Partnership Council (ANPPC), and the Children's Trust Fund Alliance will host a networking webinar on November 11, 2021 at 3:00 p.m. ET to share resources developed by and for parents. This webinar will include a discussion from ANPPC, which has developed a series of parent-to-parent infographics that share strategies on how they use strength-based protective factors in their everyday lives and how parent groups have defined the protective factors. In addition, the Children’s Trust Fund Alliance will discuss the Alliance Resiliency Project, a flexible funding model to support families during the pandemic, and CSSP will present new resources and opportunities related to Strengthening Families.

The Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin at Madison hosted a webinar on November 4, 2021 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. CT, which explored ways that fathers’ roles and responsibilities shifted during the pandemic. Topics included father involvement in childcare and support for virtual learning, how the pandemic heightened existing challenges for low-income and noncustodial fathers, insights from practice and research, and supports that fathers may need to maintain positive changes or recover from negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Representatives from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, the City of Milwaukee, the University of Michigan, and the 4Dad Fatherhood Initiative in Kalamazoo, Michigan made presentations.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had devastating effects on the livelihoods, finances, and well-being of millions of individuals in Indian Country. Compounding the burden of job losses are widespread school shutdowns and the lack of affordable child care, which simultaneously hinder TANF-participating parents, particularly mothers, from gaining meaningful employment while imposing additional costs on already tight family resources. These trends present urgent and essential demands on Tribal TANF programs. To respond to these challenges, the Office of Family Assistance hosted a webinar on October 27, 2021, which provided insights on Federal and State resources that can assist parents in transitioning into employment, as well as innovative practices from Tribal TANF, child care, and community organizations to support low-income families. The webinar also identified strategies for coordinating Tribal TANF and Child Care offices.

The American Public Human Services Association and the National Association of Welfare Research Statistics will host a hybrid (in-person and virtual learning) conference from August 22 to August 25, 2021 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The conference will bring together policy, practice, research, and various programs to advance the collective goal of achieving economic mobility and well-being for everyone. Workshops are being developed to help health and human service leaders, policymakers, and researchers in developing human services programs through collaboration, integration, modernization, and guidance on effectively monitoring quality control and performance management. A registration fee is required.

This blogpost summarizes findings from two new nationally representative studies under the Couple Relationships and Transitions Experiences (CREATE) study that examines the importance of marital interventions in early marriage. The interventions are offered before and after marriage and are designed to improve relationship satisfaction, communication, and relationship skills. The first study identified participation rates in early marriage interventions and whether these interventions were perceived as beneficial and change producing by the couples. The second study examined whether intervention program participants have better marital outcomes.

The Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation has issued a Call for Papers for the Research and Evaluation Conference on Self-Sufficiency (RECS) 2022, to be held in-person from June 1-3, 2022 in Washington, DC. The Call invites proposals for full conference sessions, individual presentations, and roundtables on the following topics: TANF programs, policies, and populations; employment and mobility in the labor market; youth well-being and the transition to adulthood; strengthening families, fatherhood, marriages, and relationships; evaluating social programs, building evidence, and using data; and approaches to alleviate poverty and expand opportunity. A virtual information session on preparing and submitting a proposal will be held on July 22, 2021 from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET. Proposal submissions are due by August 27, 2021.

This two-part June 23, 2021 podcast explores early childhood programming that includes services and supports to help families by helping fathers. The podcast’s first part examines Bright Beginnings, a Washington, D.C. nonprofit which delivers center- and home-based Head Start programming to children and families. It includes a discussion with the program’s administrator and a maintenance technician who also has been a participating father. The second part examines research from Mathematica and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation to understand approaches for including and engaging fathers in social service programming.

The Fathers and Continuous Learning in Child Welfare project is testing a Breakthrough Series Collaborative (BSC) methodology to improve placement stability and permanency outcomes for children by strengthening the engagement of fathers and paternal relatives. The pilot study described in this report documents the BSC implementation, as well as how designated Improvement Teams worked with system partners to plan, test, and adjust engagement strategies.